Department of Homeland Security

Timeline

2017.09.05

According to the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers may use the information that DACA recipients gave the government as a means of gaining temporary protection to, instead, find and deport them.thedailybeast.com(See also Immigration)

2017.09.12

The Trump administration is considering reducing the number of refugees admitted to the country over the next year to below 50,000, the lowest number since at least 1980.nytimes.com(See also Immigration, Supreme Court)

The Trump administration will allow no more than 45,000 refugees into the United States next year, in what would be the lowest admissions level in more than a decade.apnews.com(See also Immigration, Foreign Policy)

2017.10.04

Immigrant rights activists are working overtime to help protect some of the nearly 160,000 young undocumented people whose protected status is at risk because of the Trump administrationmic.com(See also Immigration)

2017.10.04

The Trump administration didn't notify immigrants about an abrupt deadline to renew DACA.vox.com(See also Immigration)

2017.10.05

White House officials believe that chief of staff John Kelly’s personal cellphone was compromised, potentially as long ago as December, raising concerns that hackers or foreign governments may have had access to data on Kelly’s phone while he was secretary of Homeland Security and after he joined the West Wing.politico.com(See also Administration Errors, John Kelly)

2017.10.11

The Department of Homeland Security is quietly exploring ways it could transform the US immigration system without Congress, including limiting protections for unaccompanied minors who come to the US illegally, expanding the use of speedy deportation proceedings, and tightening visa programs in ways that could limit legal immigration to the US.cnn.com(See also Immigration, Immigrants)

2017.11.09

As the Department of Homeland Security prepared to extend the residency permits of tens of thousands of Hondurans living in the United States, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly called acting secretary Elaine Duke to pressure her to expel them.washingtonpost.com(See also John Kelly, Immigration)

2017.11.15

Donald Trump signed two executive orders soon after his inauguration calling for the Department of Homeland Security to hire thousands of new Border Patrol and immigration agents, but the department has not only fallen short on hiring efforts, and they also can’t provide data to show how it would use additional agents — or that there’s even a need for them.fivethirtyeight.com(See also Immigration)

2017.12.01

A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to begin accepting applications for foreign entrepreneurs to enter the U.S. under the International Entrepreneur Rule, blocking the Trump administration’s efforts to delay implementation of the Obama-era policy.geekwire.com(See also Immigration, Legal Issues)

2017.12.05

The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Kirstjen M. Nielsen as the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, installing a close confidant of White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly to lead the federal agency responsible for carrying out many of Donald Trump’s most ambitious domestic policy plans.washingtonpost.com(See also John Kelly, Trump Cabinet)

The Trump administration has canceled the provisional residency permits of about 200,000 Salvadorans who have lived in the country since at least 2001, leaving them vulnerable to deportation.washingtonpost.com(See also Immigration)

2018.01.08

The Trump administration would cut or delay funding for border surveillance, radar technology, patrol boats and customs agents in its upcoming spending plan to curb illegal immigration — all proven security measures that officials and experts have said are more effective than building a wall along the Mexican border.nytimes.com(See also Mexico Wall, Immigration)

2018.01.09

The White House intends to destroy voter data collected by the election fraud commission recently shut down by Donald Trump, rather than transfer it to the Department of Homeland Security or the National Archives and Records Administration.politico.com(See also Corruption, Voter Fraud, Voter Suppression)

2018.01.18

Haitian farmers and other laborers seeking to come to the United States through temporary work visas will no longer be eligible.mcclatchydc.com(See also Racism, Jobs)

The waiver excludes rules from major laws including the National Environment Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Antiquities Act, among others.

2018.02.08

The U.S. official in charge of protecting American elections from hacking says the Russians successfully penetrated the voter registration rolls of several U.S. states prior to the 2016 presidential election.nbcnews.com(See also 2016 Election, Russian Meddling in Election)

2018.02.27

The American Civil Liberties Union accused the U.S. government of unlawfully separating a Congolese woman and her 7-year-old daughter by holding them in different immigration facilities, two time zones apart, after they sought asylum four months ago.apnews.com(See also Immigration)

The child was taken away "screaming and crying, pleading with guards not to take her away from her mother."

The Trump administration has given nearly 60,000 Haitians with provisional legal residency in the United States 18 months to leave, announcing that it will not renew the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that has allowed them to remain in this country.washingtonpost.com(See also Racism, Immigrants)